10 Ways How we waste time when on Holiday Trip

Your vacation is your hard-earned freedom. After months, sometimes years, of slogging you finally have that opportunity where you get to go out and visit a place where you don’t live! You spend time and money planning each and every detail of the trip, making sure you have the best facilities and that you don’t miss out on anything in the new place. After months of planning, you finally get to board the train or the plane that will take you to the place you have been yearning for since forever! Now, wait right there. Are you ready to take on the vacation? Well, before you do, just make sure you don’t make these silly mistakes and waste your time on your hard-earned freedom!

10. Updating your location

Even before your trip was completely planned out, you had announced it to the world that you would be going to a particular place. Breaking news – no one needs an hourly update of where you are. Seriously, the check-in function is not meant to disclose your location by the minute. It can also be harmful to your own self! If you haven’t heard of the case where people updated their location and there was a burglary at their place, well, you’re doing it wrong. If you still insist on updating your location and you want to shout a resounding NO to my wise words, at least make sure you have moderated the people who see this post. Trust me, the whole world does not need to know. No?

9. Reading

This is especially for the book worms. Reading is a favorite of many. We love spending time with our awesome books especially during travelling. What can save our lost day travelling than a brilliant book? But keep it limited to just travelling. At times, a book can hook you so bad that instead of enjoying the sunsets and beaches, you are grappling with the last few pages of the thrilling murder mystery Agatha Christie has woven up. So while your partners are enjoying life, you are immersed in nail biting action. There is nothing wrong about it! Except you have spent money to go all the way to your dream destination and are now wasting it on a book which will be waiting for you once you get back. I’m quite sure even Agatha Christie will be laughing at you secretly up above.

8. Browsing Facebook

It just doesn’t occur to people that being unaware about others’ lives for a week will not hurt them. Parents, travel books (and this list right here!) strongly advise you against social networking while travelling. It has been reiterated so many times that even Facebook feels the shame. But somehow, travelers don’t. You have come to enjoy life. Throw that damn leech away and observe around you because that is a million times more important (even when you’re not travelling). If you promise not to stop, there will be no harm done to anyone else except you. You will miss that brilliant dolphin antics but what you will know is some that random guy had broken up with his even more random girlfriend. Epic fail.

7. Uploading pictures instantly

Unless you saw something saw breathtaking that the world can just not wait to see, hold that image. There are so many disadvantages to it that even you may feel like banging your head on the wall once you experience this serious anomaly of travel. For one, while you’re busy uploading that visual, an even better one came – and you missed it. Click the picture, keep clicking and assemble once you’re back in the comfort of your home. Two, you might fall behind. While your travel mates have moved on, you’re still stuck on the same spot only to find out two minutes later that you have been left behind. Cry for help – now! Three, you’ll just be called a lame-ass loser if you do this because even the ones on Facebook realize that you should be really enjoying your vacation. Been there, done that? Take heed and never repeat.

6. Cribbing about the food/water

Unless the food and water have given you some kind of a pathetic disease, don’t whine about them. A change of place will require a change of cuisine too. Learn to adjust. If you whine about how you can’t eat that food or how disgusting that water source looks, well you shouldn’t have thought about travelling. A lot of times, people keep searching for places which give their kind of food. Rest assured, the chances of finding a place with your kind of food are one in a million. Not only do you waste your time, even your friends will have to tag along with you. The result? You’ll probably be heading out alone the next time. Advice: adjust!

5. Live tweeting

You have thousands of followers and your almost-Twitter-Celeb status is giving you the urge to live tweet your experience. Listen carefully: S.T.O.P. Well, to be quite honest, your followers on Twitter will enjoy this very much. They get awesomeness from you every second and they are traveling with you – how cool is that! Or not. Even though the chances of increasing the number of your followers is increased manifold, remember you’re exhibiting your life. You went somewhere to live, be merry and explore! Share that experience but first, experience it fully. Half the time, you will be thinking ‘what should I caption this memory?’ Sorry but that’s not how traveling works. You have to really live a memory in order to make one. Once you’re back you can compile the anthology and let your lovers enjoy!

4. Spending time at the place where you’re staying

So that hotel you booked has a great swimming pool? Well, that must be awesome. Poor others are enjoying natural beauty and beaches. Strikes a chord? A lot of us tend to revel in the beauty of the hotel we booked. We take pride in choosing the best hotel and living there. Unless you have gone to spend money only on luxury, get out! The place must be famous for its hotel but the real thing lies on the streets when you meet people, visit places and try the lifestyle of that place. Make time for yourself on those lovely backwaters. Sitting in your hotel and wasting time – poor you!

3. Meeting relatives

Actually, you must never try to plan a trip to any place where any of your relatives live. It’s a problem for you as well as for them. Once you tell your family that you’re going somewhere, they’ll load you with a list of all relatives – close and remote – that might be living in that area. Now, regardless of whether you know them or ever met them, you will be obliged to see them and they will be obliged to receive you. Out of your tight schedule, you have to spare time discussing awkward relations and the weather with your relatives. They waste your time like nothing else. This is not to say that family is not important but priorities need to be changed according to the situation. People go to travel and explore the place not to meet long lost relatives who will never even return a phone call after the visit (lest you come again).

2. Shopping

Especially for the girls, there can be nothing more wasteful than shopping. We are living in a globalized world. Everything is available everywhere. When you’re in a mall in New Delhi, you’re living the same experience as those visiting a mall in NYC. The clothes, the brands – everything is the same! Take an hour out and buy souvenirs from the local market; that is all your shopping should consist of. Going all the way and buying everything that seems local is really not a good idea. It increases your luggage besides wasting your time!

1. Focusing on work

Do you really want to pick up that call from office? They might guilt you into video confer…wait, have they already? Sigh, you can’t enjoy the holiday now, can you? Well, whatever you do, own a business or have a job, it really can wait. Remember that scene in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara where Farhan Akhtar throws Hrithik Roshan’s phone? That is precisely what your travel mates want to do when they see you working it up on your not-so-smart smart phone. Just three words: let it be. Once you’re done with your hard-earned one week, you can go back and deal with everything at once. Work interfering with vacation can give you more stress than relieving you of it. If the situation is so pathetic that the company will drown without your assistance, go ahead and spare a few moment. Otherwise, switch the damn phone off and enjoy sunbathing!